Belgian Sweets in Holland

Yummie breads and cakes in this bakery located in Wyck,

a district in Maastricht (near the Railway Station)with a a special ambiance and lots of trendy shops.

As you know we did a lot of shopping in Maastricht, not only on the Craftparking fair! In Maastricht we visited a very famous bookshop: 'Selexyz Dominikanen, a bookshop located in a 16th century Dominicaner church, described als the most beautiful bookshop in the world in the Guardian!

There I stumbled upon the book 'Sweet Belgium', (weird to be in a Dutch bookshop to find a book about Belgian Sweets!) a little description:
Belgium is world famous for it's delicious chocolates, but it has many more sweets to offer to sugar lovers! Sweet Belgium pictures more than 150 sweets, with mouth watering photographs, nice descriptions (in 3 languages) and fascinating details. Give in to the temptation of waffles, chocolates, biscuits, cakes, pastries and many more...

I thought this book would be the perfect gift for Apple, the Chinese fiance of my brother. It's so cool to learn from each others food and kitchen! The first time we met Apple we overloaded her with Belgian chocolates :-) In return we get to know the real Chinese kitchen, and I must say, we like it!

Inside the beautiful bookshop

Some pictures of the book 'Sweet Belgium'

Forest Fruit

I just finished taking pictures of a new design. I made this 'Forest Fruit' necklace for the European Street Team Challenge, hosted by Dinafragola. The theme was FOOD.

Dinafragola has a cute Kawai shop. where I bought lately these cool bunny earrings for my eldest daughter (Happy she was!). Check her blog here, to see the other FOOD entries.

More about my newest design now:

I made the felted pebbles when we were on holiday in France.

Felting those pebbles is really fun, especially, when you can do it outside, sitting on a terrace, under a big Catalpa tree with a cool glass of selfmade ice tea near you, while the kids are playing in the swimming pool and daddy is taking a little nap in the sun :-)

For the green pebbles I was inspired by the acorns my son Briek collected near our gite in France, and the green combined so good with the lavender in the garden of our host.

Back home I combined the green and lilac felted pebbles with distressed wooden beads and handmade silk beads with a mustard golden shine.

The necklace is already available in my shop!

Back with pictures!

Gosh, there is so much I have to blog about, and so little time, On Monday were turned home from my parents in law, were we stayed to sleep after the EST dinner,, in the afternoon my mother and Apple (my Brothers girlfriend) came to visit us, on tuesday we visited Ghent with the kids, Apple and my mum. Wednesday today and finally some time to blog!

Finally my laptop is repared, YAY! can't live without!

Pop in often, I will tell you more
- about Maastrichtand shopping there!
- about some wonderfull packages that I found in my postbox back home,
- about some presents I bought for friends
- about our Ghent visit
but first! - about the fantastic day I spend with some fantastic Etsy friends on the Craftparking fair.

This is the old industrial building where the Craftparking Fair took place . A beautiful old industrial site near the Maas. The fair was on the last day of a 5 days Cultural festival! A very good idea, because this brought a lot of visitors and buyers!

While we were selling (inside the building), there was a lot of animation outside with very fun Street Theatre :-)

Preparing our booths: Karlita (Karla) and Nevousinstallezpas (Veerle)

Me (Fleurfatale)and Kraplap (Petronella) setting up our shops.

Mitsy told the story of the making of 99 feelings a 100 times, I think,

:-)) People were really interested!

Veerle recommending her beautiful creations!

Maria and her Lovely partner, all the way from the Canary Islands!

Miss Deerlola (Ina) with a gorgeous booth,

the cupcakes liners to present her earrings turned out a very good idea!

Dinafragola (Nathalie) on her shopping tour (here at the booth of Viltalakim)

Petronella's booth attracted also lots of people!

(to pity I did not have a picture of Peggy, I think she was under the table or out for a walk with Pieter and my hubby!

The shop of Sigmosaics (Kerrin) and next to her Nicole (Babongo) who came to visit us.

Kerrin on a real emotional moment, when she opens her package.

(filled with presents from lots of European Etsy Frends)

Some pictures from the dinner we had in the evening.

I wish the day could have been longer, we had so much to chat, ther was so much to share!

I hope next year we can do this again, maybe with even more Est friends!

Enjoying Maastricht

We arrived in Maastricht this afternoon.

Maastricht is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, with a beautiful palette of treasures from the past, a small city, but vibrant and contempary, perfect for a long weekend, shopping, biking, sightseeing, walking, visiting museums or historical places or buildings.

As I also attend the Craftparking Fair on Sunday, hubby and I decided to stay a weekend in Maastricht instead of one day.

Maastricht is only an hour driving from my parents in law, so we dropped the kids there (so everybody happy: kids, and grandparents , but also mum and dad)and then drove off to a cosy B&B. It's a very cool Bed and Breakfast (we stay in the room with the beautiful chinese bride cupboard, and from our room window you see St Pietersberg)

and the second B stands not for breakfast but for bike, which is great, because it is so cooll to visit the city by bike !

Around the corner is a fabulous bakery who serves breakfast, so we won't be hungry , don't worry! We enjoyed biking to the centre, do some window shopping and sight seeing and then found a yummie restaurant on a terrace an the banks of the River (De Maas) in the trendy district Wyck. I realised that it was from our trip to Copenhagen that we were sitting only with the two of us on a sunny terrace outside!

We plan a flee market in the morning and an exhibition (in centre ceramique) of one of my all time favorite childhood illustrators: Fiep Westendorp. I think I will melt from nostalgic feelings when I see her lovely drawings!

My Etsy shop says open all weekend as I have WIFI in our room, so I can come and take a peek in my shop. I still offer FREE SHIPPING? but this is the last weekend. If you like to buy something, don't hesitate, because I am taking all my stuff to the Craftparking fair!

Back Home

We are home from saturday evening!
and I have lots lots lots to do, right now!
Done all the laundry, but now put eveything back in the blankets again.
Check my e-mails and sending out all the sold stuff!
Haven't even had the time to set up my shop, so the FREE SHIPPING is still going on!
and...
preparing for the Maastricht Fair!I don't know if I will be able to post much this week,we'll see,
Do take a peek inhere, from time to time, because I am soon back with new designs, some are already in my shop! (click on the pictures to go to the shop)

WEEKEND DEAL: FREE SHIPPING

Tomorrow morning we drive back home!
We had a wonderful holiday here in France!
These are the last days to make a great deal and pay NO SHIPPING on everything in my shop!
Click on the pictures below to go to my shop, or browse for other designs in my shop

Greetings from France

We are enjoying us here so much!!

In the meantime I offer Free shipping in my shop untill we are back on 8 of august!